If you are of a gloomy cast of mind, it is best to avoid the National Risk Register of Civil Emergencies. This is Whitehall’s collection of disaster-movie scenarios – ranging from riots and cyber-attacks to solar flares and volcanic eruptions – that have the potential to throw Britain into turmoil. Now, Dame Sally Davies, the new chief medical officer, has asked that antibiotic resistance be added to the list of modern-day plagues.

Dame Sally is right to fret. Although antibiotics have saved millions upon millions of lives, it was always likely that the bacteria which they target would eventually evolve resistance. Yet this process was greatly accelerated by doctors doling out the pills freely. It was not just humans who felt the benefits: farm animals were (and in many countries still are) fed antibiotics routinely, in order to keep them healthy. As a result, the bacteria were subjected to ruthless Darwinian pressure – and drug companies’ failure to come up with new classes of antibiotics left us poorly placed to cope with drug-resistant “superbugs”.

In the worst case, claim medical experts, the advances delivered by antibiotics may be entirely undone: infections picked up on the operating table might once again become death sentences. To help ward this off, there are several steps that Britain can take. First, we can cut back on antibiotic overuse – in particular, by ceasing to pander to the “worried well” by prescribing antibiotics where they are not strictly necessary. Second, the Government must develop incentives that persuade drug companies to invest in this neglected field. Ministers are rightly proud of Britain’s strengths in biotechnology: indeed, David Willetts, the science minister, was announcing fresh investment in the sector only yesterday. It should not be beyond the wit of the country that gave the world penicillin to thwart the bugs again.